Michael Maloof, former senior security policy analyst in the office of the Secretary of Defense and the author of “A Nation Forsaken,” warns North Korea already has the capability to launch a nuclear attack on the United States.

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“They have the capability, but not in the way the mainstream media talks about it,” he told WND. “North Korea still doesn’t have a missile capable of reaching the United States, but it doesn’t need it.”

Maloof explained the North Koreans are known to be able to launch a missile with a satellite on it.

Pyongyang currently has two satellites in orbit.

“North Korea could orbit a satellite which would be the size of a nuclear bomb and detonate it upwards of 300 miles above Earth, on command, making North Korea a threat to any country as a result,” Maloof said.

A nuclear bomb launched from a satellite, he explained, could carry out an EMP, or electromagnetic pulse attack, capable of knocking out the U.S. power grid.

Maloof argues there are signs North Korea already has that capacity.

“A recent photo showing Kim Jung-un next to a sphere said to be a nuclear device is the size to orbit,” he explained. “It is known that recent nuclear underground tests were in the low kiloton range but high in gamma rays, the type of electromagnetic energy needed to create an electromagnetic pulse to destroy the vulnerable U.S. grid system and all unprotected electronics.

“Now, North Korea has promised weekly missile launches and unless each is shot down upon launch, there is no way to determine whether the payload would be such a satellite which in effect would be a nuclear device.

Maloof noted the U.S. doesn’t have an anti-missile system “to knock down such a satellite at that altitude, let alone know what the payload is.”

“The U.S. operationally did shoot down for the first time a device a few years ago using the AEGIS system, but that was up to 150 miles, which exceeded the missile’s known capability. This makes it imperative to hit any North Korean missile just as its being launched, risking the prospect for retaliation.”

That kind of EMP attack could be launched from North Korea itself. Maloof says Pyongyang has also been working on a submarine capable of launching a ballistic missile.

A successful EMP attack on the United States could knock out the critical, life-sustaining infrastructures that depend on the national grid, including telecommunications, banking and finance, automated control systems, petroleum and natural gas, transportation, food and water delivery and emergency services. Cascading failures of critical infrastructure could also lead to secondary disasters, including cataclysmic failure of nuclear plants. The economic and human costs would be devastating.

Maloof noted other nations, such as Russia, China, Iran and Israel, are hardening their infrastructure and preparing for such an attack, but the United States is largely defenseless. He urged President Trump to show leadership..

“President Trump needs to give a high priority to making the prospect of an EMP a national security imperative and give it the highest priority, something which his administration isn’t doing now,” Maloof charged.

“He can begin by appointing an EMP coordinator to reside in the National Security Council to get federal, state and local efforts underway to not only protect vulnerable electronics but also to work out a plan for local governments to act in the event of an EMP. Citizens need to know what to do in case of such an emergency so as not to create massive panic throughout the country.”

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“Such a coordinator residing in the National Security Council will be important since the effort to harden and then help state and local jurisdictions prepare for an EMP event cut across a number of U.S. government agencies. The coordinator also will need to work with Congress to give the federal government the authority to require local utilities to undertake the hardening of their facilities, and to work out a means of financing such an effort.”

President Trump is already in a battle with Congress over funding his signature border wall, which the president contends is necessary to protect the nation from illegal immigration along with drug smugglers and terrorists.

But Maloof argues the EMP threat is similarly dire, and if the United States does not pay to guard against it today, it may lose far more in blood and treasure in the years to come.

“The cost of such an undertaking may be up to $20 billion, but the cost not to do this could run into the trillions of dollars,” he said. “It would take four to 10 years to fix and, most importantly, cause some 90 percent of the U.S. population to perish, since a massive EMP attack could cripple if not destroy the life-sustaining critical infrastructures on which the U.S.’s technological society depend.”